Localised micro-mechanical stiffening in the ageing aorta.

"This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (PG 07/099/23758 to H.K.G., A.W.T. and M.J.S., and FS/08/036/25364 to R.A. and B.D.); Research into Ageing (266 to M.J.S) and the Wellcome Trust (WT085981AIA to B.D. and M.J.S.). The authors would like to thank Dr. Sebastian Brand (Fraunhofer Institute of Material Mechanics, Germany) and Professor Kay Raum (Julius Wolff Institut & Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies, Germany) who developed the MATSAM software used to collect the acoustic images and Dr. Carsten Riis (Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark) who provided access to STAN software. The authors are also extremely grateful to the Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity (SPARC) and to Dr. Xuegen Zhao (who contributed to the development of the SAM methodology)."